Kouchner said he wants to discuss it with other foreign ministers from the 27-nation European Union next week. His comments opened a crack in what until now had been solid opposition to a full boycott, a stance that Kouchner said remains the official government position.

The idea of skipping the Aug. 8 opening ceremony “is less negative than a general boycott,” Kouchner said. “We are considering it.”

Asked about Kouchner’s statement, China’s U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said: “Certainly I think what he said is not shared by most of the people in the world.”

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International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said last month that he expects many heads of state — including President Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — to attend the opening ceremony.

Such an opening ceremony boycott presumably would not include the athletes, who under Olympic rules are forbidden from making any kind of protest at events or venues — including the opening ceremony.

U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said there are no rules forcing athletes to attend opening ceremonies.

“We strongly encourage our athletes to participate in opening ceremonies,” Seibel said. “It is a tremendous honor to walk into the Olympic Stadium behind the flag of your nation, and to do so in a ceremony honoring and celebrating athletes from around the world.”

The violent protests in Tibet, the most serious challenge in almost two decades to China’s rule in the region, are forcing governments and human rights campaigners to re-examine their approach to the Aug. 8-24 games.

Human Rights Watch, which has not been pushing for a boycott, may soon change its stance and urge heads of state not to go to the opening ceremony, said Sophie Richardson, the New York-based group’s Asia advocacy director. So far, the group has been suggesting that foreign leaders “think long and hard” about whether they want to seen alongside China’s leadership, she said in a telephone interview.

“Their presence at the games is going to be represented and reported by the Chinese government as a sign of approval,” she added.

Prince Charles already has said he will skip the Olympics. He supports Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile since an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg also withdrew in February as an artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies, saying China had not done enough to halt the bloodshed in Darfur. China buys much of Sudan’s oil and supplies many of the weapons used in the Darfur conflict.

China is trying to stop any boycott movement from gathering steam. In the government’s highest-level comment on the protests in Tibet and neighboring provinces, Premier Wen Jiabao accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of orchestrating the violence to taint the Olympics.

“The Beijing Olympics will be a grand gathering for people from around the world,” Wen said. “We need to respect the principles of the Olympics and the Olympic Charter and we should not politicize the games.”

The International Olympic Committee has been forced to lobby against boycott calls and the possibility of the games turning into a political demonstration.

The IOC’s basic position, as stated repeatedly by Rogge, is that it is a sports organization and unable to pressure China or any other country on political matters.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau reiterated that the Olympic Charter forbids protests at any games sites. Her comment came in response to suggestions from some French lawmakers that Olympic athletes wear Tibetan armbands or scarves on medal podiums or at the opening ceremony.

“It’s unsportsmanlike to want to gag athletes, to follow in the footsteps of totalitarianism,” said one of the lawmakers, Gerard Bapt.

Moreau would not get into specifics on how the IOC might respond to protests in Beijing.

“Lots of people and lots of organizations are commenting at the moment. We don’t want to get dragged into the debate. We have rules and procedures, which means that when things happen, we can deal with them. We are not going to start commenting about what might, or what might not, happen,” she said.

The consensus is that a total boycott would only hurt the athletes, as shown by the political boycotts of the 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics. The Dalai Lama has also said a boycott is not the answer.